They are both polarizing. Although, Obama's policies are not relatively Republican. Don't underestimate my cynicism with both parties.

On second thought Trent, I wish to partially retract that statement. Validating the "too big to fail" status of the banks rather than breaking them up and inflating the parachutes of Wall Streeters was quite Republican (and wrong) and surprised me at the time.

"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

So does anyone remember the story in an episode of Star Trek -- no...not some movie version, or next generation...geez, pull up your jeans over your underwear -- the real Star Trek, tv show, years ago on over-the-air TV when there were 3 damn channels. Anyway...

...there were these two tribes or races or something that hated each other. These people were two colors, split in the middle of their bodies. One tribe was black on the left side and white on the right side; the other tribe was white on the left side and black on their right side. They hated each other.

So Kirk is sent to negotiate some peace settlement or something between the two tribes and he meets the two leaders....looks them up and down and asks what's the issue? The leaders yell out -- "can't you see, we're different !?". Kirk looks to the dude on his left, and then the dude on his right and.... "Huh?, you look the same to me.". He shrugs. The two b&w leader guys wig out and try to kill each other...blah, blah.

Neat story, huh? Crap...I forgot what I was going to say. It was something about you can be batshit crazy about your perceived differences and not be different at all to an outsider.

tl;dr

I've done my best to live the right way. I get up every morning and go to work each day. (for now)

>> anyone who dares hint at criticism of our President is obviously a racist.

... comes from the same bucket as spaniel's assertion that Led said something that he did not. It's weird how this happens.

It is indeed possible to be critical of Obama for reasons aside from race.

It is also indeed possible to wonder if/whether/how race plays some role, especially in how the criticality (nice word) plays out.

It is possible to do both. It is possible to do the second one without calling you or anyone "a racist".

Sigh.

Yup, launched that grenade without much thoughtful consideration of the actual post.

Much of this thread (at least early on) was complaining about the lack of civility in political discourse.

Playing the race card (though I implied it earlier, I am NOT saying this was done) rather than confronting actual ideas seems pretty "uncivil" to me. I haven't read every word of this thread, but from what I have seen the Tea Party has been mentioned and labeled several times without actual discussion of the merits of their political views.

Gotta say, the anti-Bush sentiment was powerful for me personally. I didn't need the Democratic Campaign Committee to demonize him for me.

I wasn't referring Obama's "I'm not Bush" campaign when I mentioned attacks on Bush. I was referring to comments like murderer, liar, Nazi, and the like. Personal stuff. In my lifetime I do not ever recall a president being bashed personally as much as Bush had been. Actually I am pleasantly surprised on how little hear about the color of Obama's skin.

I wasn't referring Obama's "I'm not Bush" campaign when I mentioned attacks on Bush. I was referring to comments like murderer, liar, Nazi, and the like. Personal stuff. In my lifetime I do not ever recall a president being bashed personally as much as Bush had been. Actually I am pleasantly surprised on how little hear about the color of Obama's skin.

Nixon.

(Unfortunately and perhaps unfairly, Bush took extra heat because public speaking is not his strong suit.)

We hear little about the color of Obama's skin because 1) that is not the biggest issue and 2) that's not how it would get played out anyway. Look, I'm not saying the birther thing was about race... although, as I've said before, different people had different motives... but it was kind of a WTF thing. Perhaps it was simply because of the non-American heritage. Perhaps. The question remains out there for me.

Removing that last paragraph, though, I agree that Bush took a lot of personal attacky comments.

BTW, and I admit that the fog of history is coloring this for me... I definitely absolutely recall the vibe that "if you poke this administration, we will fuck with you" between 2000-2008. Outing CIA agents. Jokes on Letterman about auditing your taxes, etc etc etc. Perhaps that was passive aggressive "fighting back". Or not. History is a screwy thing.

I wasn't referring Obama's "I'm not Bush" campaign when I mentioned attacks on Bush. I was referring to comments like murderer, liar, Nazi, and the like. Personal stuff. In my lifetime I do not ever recall a president being bashed personally as much as Bush had been. Actually I am pleasantly surprised on how little hear about the color of Obama's skin.

I guess there were extreme comments about Bush like that at protest rallies and the like, but it seems minor in quantity compared to the constant barrage you hear against Obama in the right-wing media.

I agree, there's not a lot about Obama's race in the mainstream media or politicking. That's a Very Good Thing.

Yeah, possibly. I was young back then so while it may have happened I don't have much direct recollection of seeing or hearing it.

The birthing thing was a WTF to me as well. At the very least I saw it as a waste of time and energy that could have been spent elsewhere. I guess I never gave it enough attention to begin to tie anything racial to it.